Albany Resort Survives

Albany has managed to weather a financial storm which has claimed around 50 of its competitors around the Caribbean, the development's managing partner told Guardian Business.

Christopher Anand, managing partner of Albany, said that the Bahamian development survived and thrived thanks to its shareholders, while other projects across the region had fallen by the wayside.

He said: "For anyone in business for the last 18 months it's been incredibly difficult, but in many ways Albany has benefited.

"We were able to get the best from The Bahamas. We're over 90 percent Bahamian labor here, that I'm proud of, and one of the reasons we were able to do that was because there weren't a lot of other projects going on.

"There really are good people here but if too many things are going on at the same time the labor pool gets diluted and then that has to be supplemented with ex-pat labor.

"What's happened here though is because there haven't been a ton of other jobs going on we've been able to hire the best that the country has to offer, that I'm really proud of.

"Making it through an incredibly challenging business environment has also been no small accomplishment.

"It's because of our shareholders we were able to weather the storm and our competitors haven't, and when I think of competition I don't just mean The Bahamas I mean the entire Caribbean region.

"I think at last count there were 50 major projects in the Caribbean which have been pulled, shelved or canceled, but that's really to our benefit.

"It's one of those things where only the strong were going to survive the financial curve ball which was thrown 18 months ago with the collapse of Wall Street.

"Actions speak louder than words, it really is our motto on how we run all of our businesses."